People living in the taiga deal with the same things that we do

10. 03. 2018

Western culture has long been fascinated by romantic images of life untainted by civilization. Even today, we encounter the argument that if we only returned nature, we would all be happy again. But life in isolated corners of the world is not nearly as idyllic as we often imagine – nor is it all that far removed from our own. The thematic category Beyond the Horizon deals precisely with these lives.

The idea that civilization and our fast-paced lifestyle are responsible for all our problems is sensitively deconstructed in the film Braguino. The title refers to a village located amidst the harsh Siberian taiga, 500 kilometers from the nearest civilization. The number of inhabitants further underscores its isolation: on each bank of the river lives just one family – the Braguines and the Kilines. The only way to reach the local inhabitants is via a long journey along the Yenisei River – first by boat and then by helicopter. The families moved here independently from each other with the hope of living a self-sufficient life, but their idyll was short-lived. They are incapable of living together, not even next to each other. Besides holding different opinions, they have spent several years arguing over an island in the middle of the river. The film thus shows that the foundation for any society’s functioning is communication and the ability to work together, and that finding a common language is just as difficult in a big city as it is in the Siberian taiga. Besides the human factor, life in Braguino is also influenced by nature. The locals are afraid of wild animals and of the annual forest fires caused by climate change.

In fact, people living outside the main centers of civilization (whether by choice or due to historical and political circumstances) feel climate change and the negative effects of the globalized economy more than anyone else. One person’s profit is another’s suffering, and what is more they have no means of defending themselves. The best known and saddest example is the struggle for survival by the original inhabitants of the Amazonia rainforest. Forest fires also threaten the lives of the last three members of the Piripkura tribe, who are the subject of the film with the same title. In fact, civilization represents the greatest danger to the tribes of the Amazon. They are threatened not just by climate change, but also by corporate pressure for increased and massive wood-cutting. The film also shows a somewhat paradoxical situation found not just in the Amazon. Non-profit organizations or government agencies trying to help the native tribes are receiving less and less financing, and in order for the region to remain protected, they must prove every two years that the Piripkura tribe still exists.

The difficulties faced by people in remoted parts of the globe are not problems from a different world. As these two films show, people living in the Siberian taiga or the Amazonian rainforest must face the same problems as us – such as how to get along with your neighbor. And they, too, feel the impacts of our civilized way of life, which affects the entire planet in many different ways, including (but not limited to) climate change.